perldoc: Missing Accessible Plain‑Text Output Option

Goal

Provide a perldoc rendering path that preserves structural semantics (headings, lists, code blocks) for screen‑reader users.

Current Constraints

perldoc delegates to pagers such as less or more, which strip semantic markers. Pod::Html emits HTML without ARIA roles, limiting accessibility in browsers. No core flag (e.g., --plain or --accessible) exists to emit structured plain text. Environment variables that could suppress formatting are not honored by perldoc, and introducing a new flag may conflict with existing options like --text or --nopager.

Open Questions

• Should perldoc introduce a --accessible flag that outputs structured plain text with semantic markup?
• What boundary should govern the flag’s activation—explicit user request, environment variable, or terminal capability detection?
• How should the new format coexist with existing --text and --nopager behaviors to avoid breaking scripts that parse perldoc output?